Written answers

Tuesday, 13 July 2021

Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government

Defective Building Materials

Photo of Niall CollinsNiall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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366. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he has received communication and a submission or application from Limerick City and County Council to be included in the block pyrite scheme; if he will review a report (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37993/21]

Photo of Darragh O'BrienDarragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks in Construction (Remediation) (Financial Assistance) Regulations 2020 provide for a grant scheme of financial assistance to support affected homeowners in the counties of Donegal and Mayo only, to carry out the necessary remediation works to dwellings that have been damaged due to the use of defective concrete blocks.  The regulations came in to operation on 31 January 2020 and it has been open for applications since the end of June 2020. It is not a compensation scheme and is very much a scheme of last resort for homeowners who have no other practical options to remediate their homes.

The Defective Concrete Blocks Grant scheme was informed by the report of an Expert Panel which was published in 2017 which involved extensive research, investigations and analysis.  Any consideration of extension to the Defective Concrete Blocks Grants Scheme would, in the first instance, require the relevant local authority to conduct the same rigorous analysis as that carried out in Donegal and Mayo.

The relevant local authority can take the lead to first of all demonstrate that the purported issues in Limerick are in fact due to the presence of excessive amounts of deleterious materials (mica or pyrite) in the aggregate used to manufacture the concrete blocks as set out in the I.S.465 protocol, and secondly to quantify the extent of the problem in the area. This would provide the evidential basis necessary for the consideration of any extension of the scheme and would be very helpful to the Department in its deliberations.  

Preliminary discussions have taken place between my Department Officials and Limerick City and County Council, however my Department has yet to receive a formal submission on this matter from the Council. Pending the receipt of and consideration of such analysis it would be premature to consider an extension of the scheme. Any extension of the scheme  would also have to be the subject of budgetary discussions with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.

Separately, my Department has recently extended the Pyrite Remediation Scheme to include the administrative area of Limerick City and County Council, which will see homeowners of dwellings with significant damage attributable to pyritic heave in County Limerick eligible to apply for remediation works under that Scheme. 

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